Kentucky vs. Tennessee odds, line: College basketball picks, predictions from projection model on 107-79 roll

Two weeks after their first meeting of the season, the No. 4 Kentucky Wildcats and the No. 7 Tennessee Volunteers will go head-to-head in a massive showdown in the SEC. Kentucky won the first battle 86-69, but Tennessee will host at Thompson-Boling Arena at 2 p.m. ET on CBS this time around, and both squads are tied with LSU at 13-2 for first place in the league. With two of the favorites for SEC Player of the Year squaring off in the front court in Grant Williams and P.J. Washington, Saturday should be another physical and intense battle. The Vols are 2.5-point favorites with the total at 140.5 in the latest Kentucky vs. Tennessee odds. Before locking in any Kentucky vs. Tennessee picks of your own, first check out the college basketball predictions from SportsLine’s proven model. 

This model, which simulates every game 10,000 times, has raked in the winnings for those following its picks. Over the past two years, the SportsLine Projection Model has returned nearly $4,200 to $100 players on its top-rated college basketball picks. It also entered Week 17 of the 2018-19 college basketball season on a blistering 107-79 run against the spread. Anyone who has followed it is way up. 

Now it has locked in on Kentucky vs. Tennessee. We can tell you it is leaning to the over, and it also has a strong pick against the spread, saying one side hits in over 50 percent of simulations. That one is only available at SportsLine. 

For Saturday’s epic showdown, the model knows that Kentucky holds a major advantage on the glass. In the first game between these two teams, Kentucky overpowered Tennessee on both the offensive and defensive boards for a 39-26 edge. The Wildcats grabbed 41.4 percent of available offensive rebound opportunities and secured an impressive 75 percent of defensive rebound opportunities.

Power forward Reid Travis, who is expected to miss this game, was predictably a force on the boards with three offensive rebounds and eight total rebounds on the night. But Tyler Herro’s ability to get on the end of long rebounds proved to be Tennessee’s biggest problem. The guard had 11 rebounds and finished with 15 points in Kentucky’s 86-69 win at Rupp Arena.

However, don’t expect the Vols make it easy for the Wildcats to cover the Kentucky vs. Tennessee spread on Saturday at a packed Thompson-Boling Arena. 

Despite the earlier result, don’t expect Tennessee to make things easy on its rival on Saturday. The Volunteers have been challenged late in the SEC season, but Tennessee has enjoyed the comforts of home all season. The Vols are undefeated at Thompson-Boling Arena straight up and they’ve won all of those games by a minimum of 12 points.

Grant Williams shoots 58.4 percent on his home floor and Tennessee has looked more comfortable in general in its own building. Look for Lamonte Turner, who heated up late against Ole Miss, to help give the Volunteers’ offense a major boost and them to compete much more physically with Kentucky than they did in the first meeting.

Who wins Tennessee vs. Kentucky? And which side of the spread hits in over 50 percent of simulations? Visit SportsLine now to find out which side of the Kentucky vs. Tennessee spread you should be all over, all from the model that has returned more than $4,000 to $100 players the past two years.